


Ashes Blow Away

by Cheezbuckets



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst and Feels, Drabble, Gen, Light Implied AkuRoku Feels, Short and Sweet and Painful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 13:59:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16724742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheezbuckets/pseuds/Cheezbuckets
Summary: There's a moment, just before Axel completely burns away, that he swears he can see Roxas in Sora's face.





	Ashes Blow Away

**Author's Note:**

> Summary taken straight from SirLadySketch's prompt over on the Hotel de AkuRoku Discord server. Just a quick little thing to get out some emotions webcomics were giving me. Nothing new or deep, but it gave me an excuse to deeply analyze every frame of Axel's dying cutscene. XD

He panted, chest heaving. It almost—almost—felt like a heartbeat pounding within him, if only that was possible.  
  
 _If only, if only._ He couldn't think like that, now wasn't the time. Sora was behind him, and Roxas within, Dusks all around. There was only one thing left to do, to patch up all of these dumb mistakes that put him and Roxas—what was left of him—and Sora, the hero, in this dumb situation.  
  
"Watch this!" he said with a laugh before leaping away, as if he was just about to show off his prowess, his power. Which he was. This was why he had survived Castle Oblivion, because he was powerful and would do anything to win. And if "winning" was Sora—with Roxas somewhat "safe" somewhere inside him—walking away alive to take out the rest of the Organization, then he'd do what it took, like he always did. It was selfish. Like everything he did was.  
  
He grit his teeth, fire sparking and swirling around him, body shaking uncontrollably with strain as he summoned all the strength he had, focused all of the energy that made him keep crazily thinking that maybe he could feel when even just the scraps of Roxas within Sora were around.  
  
"Nnh- Graaah!" He threw out his arms, threw back his head, fire erupting from him, from the air all around him, blazing a blinding white as the all-too-familliar, oddly-fleshy stench of Dusks burning up wafted in the waves of unimaginable heat. Even he had never known heat this intense. His every nerve blazed with exhilleration for an undescribable moment before, hardly even able to realize anything was happening, he fell.  
  
It wasn't until he was staring at the swirling abyss above and around him that he realized how still and silent everything was, that _sound_ the Dusks made gone. He sighed with relief and his eyes drifted shut. It was cold now.  
  
"You're...fading away..."  
  
Brow furrowing, Axel tried to find enough of himself to open his eyes once more. Darkness, pieces of himself, drifted up and away. _So, this is what dying is like._ It was difficult to collect his thoughts and body to work together to speak, limply trying to joke away the feeling of cold, drifting, losing contact with his own body. As long as he could keep breathing, he could tell Sora what he needed. He could laugh.  
  
"Axel, what were you trying to do?"  
  
He felt a sigh escape him and his mind go back to all of those days, sunset after sunset, mission after mission, the taste of sea salt and laughter in his mouth, before admitting it. Not like it mattered anymore, right? He had nothing left to hide. He had nothing left at all. It was probably just the confusion of his last moments and the loss of sensation all through his body that made his chest ache like it used to when he lost something precious before feeling was stolen from him. He doesn't know that there's a smile on his face just talking about it.  
  
His sight seemed to be blurred when he looked at Sora. The colours of the void all around seemed to be playing tricks on him. That was the only reason Sora could look like that, like Roxas, the slender shape of his face, his halo of golden hair, his eyes filled with questions. It was like he could reach out and touch his cheek and tell him everything that was spinning and colliding inside him ever since watching Roxas walk away down that dark street.  
  
But, no, he had one more thing he needed to do.  
  
He briefly closed his eyes, and the illusion vanished when he frowned urgently at Sora. "Kairi's in the castle dungeon. Now go." He watched his own hand shake as he strained to lift it, to open a corridor, to get Sora—Roxas—out of this place and back on his hero's path.  
  
His hand fell and his breath left him, fragmenting, fading, leaving nothing but blackness.  
  
"Axel..."  
  
...  
  
The cold, smooth floor pressed against his cheek as he stared vacantly at his own hand for just a moment. His fingers flexed as he moved, pushing himself up, making his head spin. "Where..." His hands fisted with the effort to pull himself from the floor. "What happened to me?" He stood swiftly and looked up. "Roxas?"


End file.
